cpgibson's Identifications

With Don Fraser; a visit to see what was around -- the trip quickly turned into a contest to see how many yucca moths we could find. We checked every Common Yucca that we found; some were not yet blooming, but we ended up with 17 blooming yuccas out of 17 with yucca moths! It was amazing! By my count, I photographed at least 49 moths! The weather at the start (1030) was overcast with brief, light rain and 75 degrees. By the end (1453), it was sunny, and about 90 degrees.

Photographs taken with my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy A52) have precise locations. Photographs taken with my camera (Panasonic Lumix FZ80) have a generic location. We iNatted five locations -- in addition to the sites around every blooming Common Yucca that we found -- with the most time at any single site spent at the heliport near Bald Eagle Nest Sink near the southern end of South Road. We were north of Rattlesnake Camp Road only for our final ~75 minutes, when we drove Gopher Road adjacent to US-19, north to the Hernando Sportsmen's Club gate.

An entirely black female bee, 9.5 mm, found on yellow thistle (Cirsium horridulum). There were many Osmia chalybea, the host bee for Stelis ater, feeding on the same thistle and other neighboring thistles.